But of course nothing (beyond preliminaries) can be done till you name the day, and at this time of year it is needful to look well ahead if a big room is to be secured.  So if you can possibly settle that point, pray do.

There seems to have been some oversight on my wife’s part about the invitation, but she is stating her own case.  We go on a visit to Mrs. Darwin to Cambridge on Saturday week, and the Saturday after that I am bound to be at Eton.

Moreover, I have sacrificed to the public Moloch so far as to promise to take the chair at a public meeting in favour of a Free Library for Marylebone on the 7th.  As Wednesday’s work at the Geological Society and the soiree knocked me up all yesterday, I shall be about finished I expect on the 8th.  If you are going to be at Hindhead after that, and would have us for a day, it would be jolly; but I cannot be away long, as I have some work to finish before I go abroad.

I never was so uncomfortable in my life, I think, as on Wednesday when L—­ was speaking, just in front of me, at the University.  Of course I was in entire sympathy with the tenor of his speech, but I was no less certain of the impolicy of giving a chance to such a master of polished putting-down as the Chancellor.  You know Mrs. Carlyle said that Owen’s sweetness reminded her of sugar of lead.  Granville’s was that plus butter of antimony!

Ever yours very faithfully,

T.H.  Huxley.

N.B.—­Don’t swear, but get Mrs. Tyndall, who is patient and good-tempered, to read this long screed.

May 18, 1887.

My dear Tyndall,

I was very glad to get your letter yesterday morning, and I conveyed your alteration at once to Rucker, who is acting as secretary.  I asked him to communicate with you directly to save time.

I hear that the proposal has been received very warmly by all sorts and conditions of men, and that is quite apart from any action of your closer personal friends.  Personally I am rather of your mind about the “dozen or score” of the faithful.  But as that was by no means to the mind of those who started the project, and, moreover, might have given rise to some heartburning, I have not thought it desirable to meddle with the process of spontaneous combustion.  So look out for a big bonfire somewhere in the middle of June!  I have a hideous cold, and can only hope that the bracing air of Cambridge, where we go on Saturday, may set me right.

Ever yours very faithfully,

T.H.  Huxley.

[To recover from his pleuritic “Jubilee Honour” he went for a fortnight (July 11-25) to Ilkley, which had done him so much good before, intending to proceed to Switzerland as soon as he conveniently could.]

Ilkley, July 15, 1887.

My dear Foster,

I was very much fatigued by the journey here, but the move was good, and I am certainly mending, though not so fast as I could wish.  I expect some adhesions are interfering with my bellows.  As soon as I am fit to travel I am thinking of going to Lugano, and thence to Monte Generoso.  The travelling is easy to Lugano, and I know the latter place.